by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

Richard Petty, NASCAR's first seven-time champion, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., the son of the only other driver to accomplish the feat, are separated by more than three decades in age but share a similar mass appeal.

With his trademark cowboy hat and sunglasses, Petty is the sport's most identifiable icon while fans have voted Earnhardt as the most popular driver in Sprint Cup for 10 consecutive seasons.

And sponsors, on which NASCAR is reliant to continue its business model, have taken notice.

Goody's, a longtime NASCAR sponsor that Petty has endorsed for 37 years, recently added Earnhardt as a co-spokesman.

"There's a new crowd taking over," Petty, 75, told USA TODAY Sports. "They got so many older guys and gals, they've got to try to do the new generation. Junior was the logical guy to do it."

It's not the first time the twin dynasties of North Carolina's rich racing heritage have done business â?? Earnhardt's grandfather, Ralph, drove eight races in an Oldsmobile owned by Petty's father, Lee, in 1957 â?? but it's still a monumental marriage of the starpower that has driven the popularity of stock-car racing virtually since its inception.

"It's pretty crazy," Earnhardt, 38, told USA TODAY Sports. "I never thought when I got into this business that I'd be working with Richard on anything, so that part of it's really cool.

"When you grow up around the sport, you always want a chance to really work with people. You know all the stats and what you saw on TV or in person, but you don't know the man until you get to spend time around him."

Between a couple of commercial shoots at Earnhardt's sprawling compound, NASCAR's most affable driver of all time and its current Mr. Congeniality have become better acquainted.

During a wide-ranging interview, USA TODAY Sports sat down with Petty and Earnhardt, who had an easygoing rapport as they discussed the challenges facing today's generation, their mutual respect and memories of their careers, the way they've handled fame and where they see the sport headed:

Q: Richard, how does Dale do with being the No. 1 ambassador?

Richard Petty: He must do a pretty good job because he keeps winning the thing. You know what I mean? People perceive what he really does and what he really is. That's the reason he's popular. He handles adversity very well. I'm very impressed with it. He was throwed into the middle of something he didn't really start. His dad started it. He came along and picked up the mantle and was able to carry it like it should have been carried.

Q: He also carried that burden through a four-year victory drought; can you relate to that?

RP: Been there, done that. (In) '78, I didn't win a race, come back in '79 and won the championship. And then didn't win any races (in '82). It's very demeaning, I guess. You expect to win three to four races a year automatic. Win any more than that, it's really a great year. You always figure that's a standard deal. You need to win that just to be there. When you go through a year and don't win a race, man, it's pure hell. Because you say, 'OK, what am I doing wrong? What's the team doing wrong? What's happening?' The way we did it, and the way it worked, we just kept on plugging away, and it'd come back. It's never easy. It's like waves in an ocean. Nothing is smooth. The sun don't shine on the same guy all the time. (DEJ chuckles) So you just have to learn to accept that's life.

Q: Dale, what has Richard shown you?

Dale Earnhardt Jr: How you handle fans. He set the standard back when he was driving. Everyone would say, and you'd heard quite often how he was the example of how you were supposed to interact with the fans and how you carried yourself around the garage and interacted with the other drivers. He just did everything the way you were supposed to do it. That was the standard. That still carries a lot of weight today. Even now when drivers look back, that's the standard. The Richard Petty Way is the way you're supposed to do it when you walk through the garage, and you get people wanting autographs. The idea was he signed every one that was put in front of him. That's the way you ought to think when you're in that situation.

RP: It's a lot harder on them guys today than it used to be because there's so dang many more people.

Q: But you would stay for hours after races signing autographs, right?

RP (laughing): Well, we stayed until the truck got loaded and then they'd come get me.

DEJ: If he didn't do it the way he did it, who knows, we might be doing things differently and not as good.

Q: Do drivers have it easier now because there's motor coaches and more money and airplanes, or is it harder because of the resultant attention and sponsorship demands and all that?

RP: For me, it'd be harder (now) because there's so much more demand on the drivers' time. I don't know how they even get a chance to talk to the crew guys, because they get out of the car and everyone is wandering around wanting autographs, taking pictures, wanting to get interviewed, and then here comes the sponsor who wants you to go meet some of his buddies. Then there are just people everywhere. It used to be there weren't that many people, and you didn't have the scrutiny. Because there's a TV camera on now, they're probably in the bathroom now. I think it'd be harder to do those things today than what it was when I came on.

DEJ: My favorite era was the late '60s all the way up until around '82-83. That little chunk right there was where I wished I would have had the opportunity to compete. There was something about the sport back then. I love a good road trip, so driving to the races -- we still drove to them in the '80s up to a point -- that was fun. That was part of the weekend. The drive there was part of the whole process. So I look back on that as a golden era of the sport kind of coming into its own and creating its own identity.

Q: Was it easier then because it was purer?

DEJ: I don't know if 'easy' is the right word.

RP: More laid-back.

DEJ: More laid-back and probably more fun. It's a business.

RP: It's a different fun now (laughs). It really is different.

DEJ: It's a whole lot more put together and polished.

Q: But it has to be because of sponsor and media demands.

RP: It has to be. I'm not condemning it I'm just saying that's the way it is, and that's the way it's got to be.

DEJ: Yeah, man. Twenty years from now, you'll look back and say today was the golden era. (laughs)

RP: You're right! You're right. Man, we didn't have to do nothing.

DEJ: Yeah, 2012, that was awesome! (laughs) Yeah, it was so simple.

Q: Did you root for The King?

DEJ: Yeah, especially (in) '82, '83 when I started understanding what I was watching. As soon as I started paying attention, I realized where he was in his career and how badly everybody wanted him to win the 200th race. I don't know anyone who didn't want him to win it. Everybody wanted him to win it. Then after he did that, I remember he had a couple of good runs and won the 125 at Daytona in '89 or '88. He had a good car and everybody was all pumped up about that, and he run pretty good in the 500. They had a little trouble, but there were just races where he would excel in the twilight of his career, and everybody would get excited about that. So there were many times you would pull for him.

Q: With the seven-time champion connections, Dale, did your father talk often about "The King?"

DEJ: Nah, we never talked about that. He would talk to his friends about that, but I know that it meant a lot. It was as important, maybe more important than winning the Daytona 500, was putting himself beside Richard with winning seven championships because that was Richard up there by himself. Everybody dreamed of winning that many championships. That was everybody's dream.

Q: What did it mean to have Dale Earnhardt tie your record, King?

RP: We just run and run and run, and when we got through, those were the records. We didn't have to run for no records, because a lot of the records we set, there were no records before. (Junior laughs) And I never had any ambitions to beat anybody's. My dad had won more races than anybody when I came along, and we was trucking along one time there in '66 or '67, and somebody said, 'Hey, you're getting close to your dad in wins.' I said, 'OK.' It wasn't a big deal. 55 or something (actually 54). We went through there and didn't even slow down. You don't think about that. We won 10 races in a row, and you forget about that. What happened yesterday is yesterday. All we was looking was getting to the next race and try to win it. When it's all over with, you add it up, and that's what it is. There's nothing you can do about it.

Q: How was your first trip to Whisky River for the Goody's commercial shoot?

RP: That was the first time I'd been there, yeah.

Q: What did you think of a replica Western town in the middle of a 200-acre property?

RP: I was impressed (DEJ laughs). I was wondering how many dang people he's got wandering around there to keep that place cleaned up.

DEJ: Nobody cleans it, man (laughing).

RP: They don't?

DEJ: Nobody cleans it; it stays dirty!

RP: Yeah, but I meant the people who mow the yard?

DEJ: I got one guy who mows the whole place.

RP: I got two that start on Monday and end on Saturday night and start again on Monday morning. That's all I do is mow.

DEJ: Really?

RP: Yeah.

Q: Did you give him the full tour and race go-karts?

DEJ (shaking head): Nah.

RP: No, we went down and did the deal and was there a couple of hours. I had some other stuff to do, and he was gone, too. We don't stay still long. I seen the (go-kart) track, though.

Q: What's your favorite memory of Richard Petty's career, Dale?

DEJ: The 200th win. I was at that race. I didn't know what I was going to witness that day. (July 4, 1984, Firecracker 400, Daytona International Speedway)

RP: He was pulling for Cale (Yarborough)!

DEJ (laughing): We hadn't planned on being there for Richard's win. We was hoping Daddy's gonna win, but I just remember being in the infield after the race, and they had this big old tent where all the other drivers were there with their families and stuff, and the president and Richard were sitting down, and everyone was eating. I felt like we were throwing a party. It was really neat. I was really, really young, but it's just one of them memories that just gets etched in there.

RP: It was quite a deal. Sitting down July 4 with the president of the United States. And here's this little red-haired kid running around us.

DEJ: Everybody was in there. It just felt surreal.

Q: So Richard, you remember Dale Jr. as a kid at the track?

RP: Yeah. I just remember Dale bringing him around and stuff. He was younger than my kids, and I had grandkids come along the same age as him. But the big deal was Dale and his crowd run in a different circle than me and my crowd. We was still from the old school. Dale come in in the middle of it. He come in after the Pearsons, Allisons, Yarboroughs and Pettys. So he filled that gap. There was a gap there between them and the crowd that's there now. So Earnhardt and Waltrip kind of brought them two groups together, and they was in the middle of that. They seen the Last of these Mohicans, and the first of the new crowd. They raced against the old guys, and when they were on the back ends of their careers, it was the front end of these other guys' careers. Pretty interesting to be in that part of the history.

Q: If there's something both of you could change about the sport, what would it be?

DEJ: I wouldn't change anything. I think that we get asked that question all the time, just about every year. And used to have all kinds of answers for it, but in the last couple of years, I think they've been doing pretty good. They've made a lot of changes. A lot of good changes. Double-file restarts. All kinds of stuff like that, and it's really made the sport a lot more modernized to the fan we have today. They made a lot of changes this year to that car. There's nothing that really sticks out to me that I'd like to have different. Because I think right now we have a blank sheet of paper, a blank canvas that we can really do some pretty awesome stuff with.

Q: So there's nothing that would take it back to that golden age you were talking about?

RP: It's just a different world. So technically â?¦ we've worked our way into the technical part of it, and we can't get back out of it. So all we can do is go forward with the technology that's out there and bring it in and use it to our advantage as much as we can.

Q: So like Dale, you're pleased with the direction, too?

RP: Well, I don't want to say I'm pleased with it, but there's nothing that I can change.

Q: But if you could?

RP: If they walked in and said, 'What would you change?' it would take a lot of soul searching or looking around if they just told you that you could change one thing. You'd have to look at a lot of different things to make that decision. There's no magic wand that can be done whether it's at the racetrack or on the race car or the way they do business or whatever. It is what it is. So that was one of my dad's big deals. Him and (Bill) France wasn't the best of buddies, but they made it work. He said 'Look, it's their ballgame. It's their ball. It's their field. If you want to play, you can play. If you don't like what they do, you don't have to go play.' And that's the way I always look at it. If you don't like the rules, you don't have to run. So then there ain't no need to complain about them because they're their rules. They're not your rules. You survive with it.